Horizontally expansive silage storage bags have become known and used as an alternative to permanent storage structures, such as barns or silos. Suc storage bags are desirable from an economical standpoint and are advantageous in that they are easily loaded and the stored material is readily accessible.
A currently existing apparatus for loading such receptacles is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,069 to Eggenmuller et al wherein an apparatus for bagging silage is shown. A loading channel supports an unfilled bag and guides the silage from a press roll having spirally located teeth about the outer periphery of the roll. Feed stock is fed into a hopper where it is forced by a reciprocating member into the press roll whose teeth force the feed stock into the storage bag. A gate is held against the closed end of the storage bag with cables connected therefrom to a drum on the apparatus, which drum has a brake arrangment applying tension to the cables so that as the storage bag is filled the brake will release the cable and the apparatus will move away from the gate.
A modifcation of the Egenmuller et al '068 patent is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,805 to Johnson et al wherein substantially the same apparatus is provided except that the pass roll has randomly located groups of teeth, each group having four teeth, about the periphery thereof for forcing the feed stock into a truncated triangular tunnel (as sectioned transverse to the direction of movement of the feed stock) and then into the storage bag. A feeder roll is rotated in the bottom of a feed hopper to advance the feed stock into the press roll. A disc brake arrangement is used to add the resistance to the cable on the drum so as to pay out the cable as the storage bag if filled. A sprocket drive arrangement is employed to drive both the feeder roll and the press roll.
In both of the prior art apparatus described above the press roll is mounted in bearings on opposite sides of the housing and, due to the nature of the wear on the parts of the press roll, must be frequently replaced which necessitates almost completely disassembling the apparatus to remove and replace the press roll. The spirally located single teeth of Eggenmuller '068 and the randomly located groups of teeth of Johnson et al both create unusually heavy loads on the drive apparatus for the feed roller and must be operated at relatively low speeds to avoid clogging or jamming thereof. Eggenmuller et al '068 requires a reciprocating feeder in the hopper where Johnson et al '805 requires a power driven feeder roll to feed the material from the hopper into the feed roller. In both cases the added movable parts of the reciprocating member or of the feeder roll takes power to operate and provides additional apparatus for potential failure and service. In both prior devices the material had to be fed evenly across the full width of the apparatus otherwise the bag was filled unevenly causing pockets and spoilage.
Both Eggenmuller et al '068 and Johnson et al '805 require brake operating cables connected to a gate at the closed end of the bag so that when the braking force is exceeded by the pressed material in the bag, the apparatus will move relative to the gate on the end of the bag. The cables frequently rub the sides of the bag causing bag punctures. It is difficult to rewind the cable in a single layer on the drum. The bag must be kept absolutely straight or the cable will cut into the curved side of the bag and puncture the bag.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the above enumerated problems.